History
Oddly enough Florence, as a city, does not have a significant place in history. As with many Italian cities, Florence began its life as an Estruscan colony called Fiesole in about 200 BC. It later became a Roman garrison called Florentia until it earned its independence in the early 12th century. By 1138 it was ruled by 12 consuls and the Council of One Hundred, the latter being a group of rich merchants that lasted about a hundred years when it was replaced by a foreign governer believed to be more impartial. This was followed by the exclusion of the nobility from government in 1293 with power invested in the Signoria, a council drawn from the major guilds. By the second part of the 14th century the Medicis began consolidating power. Cosimo Medici, patron of artists such as Donatello, Brunelleschi and Filippo Lippi, became ruler of Florence. His grandson Lorenzo, is perhaps the most famous and he gained took the reins of power in 1469 when the city at the height of its artistic development with artists such as Botticelli, da Vinci and Michelangelo producing great works. In 1494 the Medicis' bank failed and lost their hold on power. The city fell under the control of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk who led a puritanical republic and with his child spies began gathering up all of the works of the Medicis that culminated in the notorious Bonfire of the Vanities when books, paintings and furniture were burtned. He eventually fell from public favour and was burned as a heretic in 1498 in exactly the same spot where he had made his bonfire. This gave the opportunity to the Medicis to return to Florence in the 16th century and rule for the next 200 years until it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. Florence became capital of the Kingdom, and remained so until Rome took over in 1875. One of the things that has left Florence marks historically is the sad event of 1993 when a Mafia car bomb killed five people outside the Uffizi.
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